Marvin Gaye Park

Hey guys, Yesterday and the day before my team spent all day working on a park in the DC area. "Washington parks and people" paired with other sponsers is working to change the park's name to "Marvin Gaye park". Marvin Gaye grew up near this park and it is said that it inspired many of his songs. The park's previous name was Heritage park, also known as Needle park; last year they found 7,000 hypodermic needles when they cleaned. My group, house 5, cut down trees with hacksaws and drug them out of a ravine, chopped branches, and cleared brush all day Friday. Saturday we planted and mulched several trees to improve the area. Some of the other teams picked up trash, fixed up a community center, and planted grass. The neighborhood around the park has one of the highest percentages of children in the DC area. We helped make them a safer, greener place to play. I was proud of my team, they all worked thier butts off. It was nice to see all the work we got done.

I'm going to apply to the Clinton school of public service masters program for the Fall. If you are in NCCC they will double match my ed award, making it free. It's only a year and a half, so I'd get a free masters in a short amount of time. I figure if I like what I'm doing now so much maybe I should just get a masters in it. Here's a magazine article and a picture.

From USA Weekend
In the nation's capital, a steady, chilly rain accompanied more than 200 Make A Difference Day volunteers as they put finishing touches on a reclamation effort that began almost 5 years ago. Among the accomplishments in the Watts Branch Park area: A night club where Motown singer and D.C. native Marvin Gaye once performed transformed into a community center, landscaping at an outdoor amphitheater, trail improvements and mulch at the base of 1,000 trees. "It was the worst part of the worst park in the capital, the most crime-ridden park," said volunteer organizer Steve Campbell. "This is a dream come true."